Goodbye party and hello to the new school year

Tonight my school held a goodbye party at a local izakaya for the teachers and staff that are leaving our school this week. Goodbye parties are always sad moments for everyone as you never want to say goodbye to friends and see them go, but you are glad to see them and have fun with them one more time before they leave. There was laughter, tears, and lots of drinks. It was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is April 1st, the traditional beginning of the school year in Japan. For me it means new classes and new students. I'm very excited but also nervous at all the new classes I'll be taking over for this year. I have a good feeling this will be a much better year than last year, and hopefully will be less stressful than the 2008 school year was.

One bad thing however is I am still fighting my cold, but hopefully I will be better shortly.

Sickness out of nowhere!

If there is one thing I hate its getting sick all of a sudden for no reason at all. That has happened to me once again this weekend. Saturday I biked home feeling extremely exhausted and tired. The next thing I knew I was in bed at 7pm! I ended up waking up at 1am and couldn't sleep as I started to feel sick. At the weekend has gone on, I have gotten worse and worse. Now its Monday afternoon and I feel so bad I am surprised I am able to get out of bed. And worst still, the weekend is almost up, and this week will be a busy week of early schedules at work, to get ready for the new year beginning next week. I wonder why I'm not feeling well. Perhaps I caught a cold from a student, or the weather changes has effected my body. Whatever it is, I know I'll feel miserable for the next few days.

"Dragonball: Evolution" and "Yattaman"

Today was another holiday in Japan. This time it was "Shunbun no Hi" or the Vernal Equinox. From what I know many people visit the graves of their ancestors on this day. But for me, it was a chance to relax and go out and have fun. It looked like it was going to not be a good day as all week the weather forecast had been for rain, but luckily that rain moved off pretty quickly, and it ended up being a very nice and warm day. So being that it was a nice day, a holiday, and men's day at the theater, I decided to check out a couple of movies at the local cinema.

Since I love anime, and bad films, I decided to watch the two big live action anime movies at the moment, "Dragonball: Evolution" and "Yattaman." "Dragonball" was a weird film. First its a American production, and two it was released in Japan a month before it was in America. In fact it still isn't out back in the states. But I would say no one is missing anything by not having it. Its a disappointing film on all levels, which is what I had expected it to be. Its a quick 90 minute movie that barely covers any of the material, has no character development, no explanations for any of the plot, bad acting, bad story, just about everything in it is bad. I was particularly annoyed by the fact that major plot point were never explained. For example, the main villain Piccolo was imprisoned 2000 years before after a attempt to take over Earth. Yet in the film, he just appears out of no where, no explanation is given to how he escaped at all! In summary, the film was a disaster, a true mess, and one of the worst films I've seen at the theater. But just like past worst films I've seen at the theater, like "Masters of the Universe," I loved how bad it was. Still its not a good film and I would not recommend it to anyone.

"Yattaman" however I would recommend, for its not only a much closer adaptation to its source material, but also a fun little movie that had me really enjoying every moment and every scene. "Yattaman" was originally an old 1970s kids anime series from the studio Tatsunoko, about a group of villains, headed by the beautiful Doronjo, who are out to find pieces of a stone that once put together will show the location of the largest deposit of gold in the world. But they antics are always stopped by the heros, the Yattaman team, a boy and a girl dressed in strange mechanics outfits and with their giant mecha dog Yatta Wan and their robot sidekick Omochama, always saves the day. The show has recently returned with a brand new remake that has aired since last year, and now a new movie by Takashi Miike. This time the story has the stone granting the dreams of the person that brings it together. This film was very enjoyable! It doesn't hide behind that fact its based on a cartoon, it embraces it. You can tell the actors all are having fun in the film, and the story was both enjoyable and funny. Even when it gets a tiny bit serious, it never seems bad. The movie was a blast, and even though it was a kids movie, it had moments where they would add jokes that adults could enjoy. In fact many of the jokes were quite perverted, and very funny!

So in the end, my movie day was a lot of fun. I certainly want to see "Yattaman" again, and will be buying that on Blu-Ray once its released. "Dragonball" was a huge disaster, but as a bad movie, I enjoyed it for what it was. No matter what, getting out and enjoying some movies helped relieved some stress.

In one last bit of news, yesterday I said goodbye to some of my classes, but also to some students who were leaving the school. One surprised me by announcing before class she was moving and this was her last day. I was liked that student and was disappointed by her leaving. At the end of the day as we said our goodbyes, she opened her bag and pulled out a gift and said "Thank you for everything you have done for me this year!" I was so surprised, I literally cried after that. Its moments like that, when all the difficult parts of my job become easier to handle, because thats when you know you are doing something good and wonderful!

Its starting to feel like Spring!

It seems the push towards Spring is finally happening. The weather this weekend has been gorgeous. Very nice and getting warmer. Today was a very beautiful day. I took a nice walk to pick up my bike from the train station, where I had parked it a few nights back when I headed to Kofu for a party, and it was very nice. The only bad thing was the haze in the air kept Mt. Fuji from showing its full brilliance.

On Saturday I went to a party with some friends in downtown Kofu. There I saw some of my old students again, met new friends, and also saw one of my old bosses from NOVA. I ended up making a few too many "I'm mad at NOVA" comments, but thankfully he didn't mind and he understood how I felt. We ended up at a izakaya having lots to drink and a nice dinner, and then headed to a Jazz bar near my old workplace. I had never been to a jazz club before, so it was a unique experience. Lots of good music and a nice atmosphere. Hearing the music reminded me of my grandfather and hearing him play the saxophone when I was younger. It was a nice day.

This week is going to be a interesting one. First off, it will be one year ago this week that I started teaching at my current school. Its been a extremely difficult and humbling year for me there. I have learned a lot there, and I hope to learn even more this year about teaching English. Since this is also the end of the school year, I'll be teaching some kids for the last time this week. Hopefully it will be all smiles and very few mistakes. Thankfully also there is a national holiday on Friday, which means a nice day off before the difficult Saturday classes I have. But I'm not worried. I'm not going to worry about work like I have in the past. I'm going to go into work now with a renewed sense of vision, and try my best. I'm not going to allow anyone to drag me down anymore, and I'm going to work my hardest to improve any way I can.

I'm also very excited about the next many weeks. Sakura season will be a nice time for lots of bike rides around the city. Golden week is also coming up, and I plan to relax a lot that week. And then on May 10th, the Hamasaki Ayumi concert in Yokohama. But not only that, I plan on making a major purchase that weekend as well. Its going to be huge!

Hard work, hard results

Just yesterday I wrote about my big activity class that I had did last week at my school. My feelings about the class were that it was a major improvement over the last activity class I had made, and that I had really done a good job. I wasn't perfect and I could see areas where I could do better, but overall I felt very happy about the situation. My only concern was how did the people at work feel about it? Today I got the answer.

The word I got from others at work today was that while there was improvement from the last event, there were still many things they felt I had not done as well as I could've. There was even a mention that there was confusion over my choices of films for the night. We then went over what they felt I didn't do well and what I should do to improve in this and all the classes. This was the second meeting like this for me this week, and both were difficult as they were very straight forward and focused on mistakes mostly, and not the good points of my work.

The sad thing about it is I wish I could show everyone how hard I work. I spent so much time and effort on that event, and all my classes. Yet I seem to be unable to do that. With the new school year coming up, and some new helpful tips I've received, I'm hoping to turn things around fairly quickly. But still, It's always sad for me to see myself make mistakes, even though we all make them.

Lately to cheer myself up from the disappointments, I've been relaxing at home playing lots of video games. Many nights its really nice to come home and just lie back and turn on a quick game to rest and get my mind off of things. I'm also starting to watch some of the backlogged anime I have on DVD. Its nice to finally get to it, as its both enjoyable and helpful to me with my Japanese studying. This weekend I even plan on going to a good old Japanese style party with some friends, and maybe afterwords go see "Dragonball" at the theaters. There's a lot to smile about even with the disappointment. And soon Spring will be here, and with it things will be even better! I can't wait for cherry blossom season to begin!

Movie night is a success! Or was it?!?!?!

So last Friday was the moment that I had been working for three weeks to prepare for. It was the night of my big movie night event at my school. A few weeks before I had tried a night using the Wii as a basis for having fun and learning some English. However the event didn't go as well as I had hoped, even though everyone had fun, and there was much concern about me doing another event that would be much harder than that one.

I decided that the night would be broken up into three parts. The first part would be a quick basic movie culture segment, where I could teach some words and talk about the differences of seeing a movie in Japan and America. This went OK, but the time wasn't there and I felt that it wasn't a good chance for English conversation. But I tried my best to get the students to talk.

The second activity was a bit of a experiment doing something I had done in my childhood, taking a movie without sound and putting a dub to it. This was done in groups, and surprisingly the groups did a good job. However the clip I had chosen was a bit too long so it was a difficult activity.

The final part was watching a short movie, an old Three Stooges short called "Malice in the Palace." I was nervous about my choice, and spent weeks coming up with it, but in the end it was a hit with a lot of laughs and the students enjoyed it.

At the end of the night I felt very good. I thought the students had fun, they enjoyed it and learned something from the night. It certainly was a major improvement over my Wii night event, and I think I proved that I could do it. At least thats how I felt at first. But since that night I have found the opinions of those that viewed the event from the school side were mixed. Mostly praise, but a lot of questions of why I did one thing over another. I haven't had a chance top get a full assessment of the night yet from my coordinator who viewed the entire event, but I hope to soon. But I also worry about it.

In other news, thankfully as of today I can finally put NOVA behind me once and for all, as the terrible G Com, a company I am still angry with to this day, finally responded to my e-mails and sent me my tax papers. So I no longer have to deal with them anymore. Thank goodness for that! I also last week received my Hamasaki Ayumi concert ticket in the mail. According to the seating chart, it looks like I got a nice seat too, so I am very happy. The concert is in two months and I cant wait for it!

The weather in the Kofu area is finally starting to get warmer. Its still pretty chilly at night, and the wind is as strong as ever, but the temperatures during the day are starting to get to Spring levels. As much as I like winter time, I am ready to say goodbye to this cold season.

Other than that, since I am saving money at the moment, I am spending lots of free time relaxing at home, playing some games and watching movies. But I'm thinking of taking some bike trips on the weekends once the weather gets warmer. I think that will be nice to do.

Has it been two years already?

I just realized this weekend that I have been back in Japan now for two years. I guess the anniversary passed by unnoticed as its also the anniversary of all the NOVA finality from last year, but as I look back now I'm truly amazed at all the things I've been through these two years. I had expected coming back to Japan would make everything easy, but its been really hard dealing with all the problems. Thankfully I'm happier today than I was three years ago when I wasn't sure I would ever get back to Japan. Today I have so much more than I had then, and even though work and life are incredibly hard, I have so much to be thankful for.

Tonight I decided to finally watch last years NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen. The program is a famous song contest that airs live every New Years Eve which has two teams of singers singing the biggest songs in Japan over the past year. I had planned on watching it live as I usually do, but I ended up being invited to a party at the last minute that day, and I just never had time to watch it until today. Its a pretty interesting show as it combines jpop stars with those of the enka world. Enka is kind of similar to country music in the US. Its a very enjoyable show, although some of the enthusiasm is pushed a little too much at times.

The picture above by the way is from my trip to Shosenkyo last October. This is the waterfall at the top of the climb of the gorge. The pic was taken from my cell phone so its not the best quality but I wanted to post it here to show a little of the area I live near.

This week I have to get ready for another special lesson for my adult classes. This time I'm doing a movie activity lesson. I think I will be much more prepared for this one then my Wii night back in February. The only problem is, what to show? I'm thinking of showing a old "Three Stooges" short, but that could be both a good thing and a bad one one. We will find out soon how it goes.

Not much else is going on. Since its a busy time right now, I'm just resting and playing games. It's good though, as it doesn't cost me any money, and its good to save now. And hopefully this week at work will be a good one. I need a good week.